The former Governor of Anambra State and 2023 Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has questioned President Bola Tinubu’s frequent trips abroad when the country is embroiled in myriad problems in virtually all areas of governance
Speaking via his verified X handle on Saturday, Obi wondered why a sitting president of a country would embark on a leisure trip at a time the country is still mourning the painful loss of innocent lives in Mokwa and Yelwata.
Saturday Telegraph had earlier reported that President Tinubu is set to depart Abuja for a two-nation visit to Saint Lucia and Brazil to attend the 2025 BRICS summit.
While in Saint Lucia, Tinubu plans to conduct a state visit aimed at enhancing Nigeria’s ties with Caribbean countries and bolstering South-South cooperation. President Tinubu will then travel to Brazil to attend the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 2025.
Reacting to the development, the economic expert fumed against such trips, pointing out that no president embarks on a leisure trip while his country is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
”I told the person who drew my attention to the Caribbean story that it cannot be true and that the President is just coming back from a holiday in Lagos.
“I didn’t want to believe that anybody in the position of authority, more so the President, on whose table the buck stops in this country, with all the myriad problems in virtually all areas of governance, would contemplate a leisure trip at this time.
”This is a President going for leisure when he couldn’t visit Minna, Niger state where over two hundred lives were lost and over 700 persons still missing in a flood natural disaster.
“I wonder which type of incident will happen before a President is attracted to show physical sympathy to the distressed citizens.
”The other state in crisis where over two hundred lives were murdered, the President yielded to public pressure and visited Makurdi the state capital for what turned out to be a political jamboree than condolence as public holiday was declared and children made to line up to receive the President who couldn’t even reach the village, the scene of the brutal attack,” Obi lamented.
